Which would you choose: Preschool where you work, at likely primary school, or stay at current nursery

[prepareforharvest]

DD will be going to preschool next year but I am undecided about which route to take. All have pros and cons so I would be interested in hearing other opinions from experience. DH and I both work term time only so for us that’s a pro rather than a con financially, though a few days of the summer with her at nursery have been nice!

Option 1 is to go to the preschool at the independent school I work in for a year.
Pros: term time only, wrap around care included, 50% fee remission, time in the car together could be nice
Cons: realistically we cannot afford to send her to school there so it would just be for a year. If she were ill or anything it would make sense for me to always be the one to pick her up/I think more responsibility would fall to me.

Option 2 is the preschool at the primary school she’s almost certain to go to (very safely in catchment)
Pros: gets to know space/staff/routines, term time only
Cons: more awkward with timings of the day so would have to work out wrap around care

Option 3 is the preschool at her current nursery
Pros: can be there long hours if needed, know and love the setting/staff, younger sibling there so we’d be going anyway
Cons: expensive, not term time only

At points I feel I’ve settled on all of them but haven’t come to a final conclusion so would appreciate and thoughts experience parents might have! Thanks

With the primary school she's going to, you'll have to work out wrap around care when she goes to school, won't you? I would probably say that one - it'll make for a nice transition for her.

Having said that, they are all good options, I don't think there's a 'wrong' choice here tbh.

I felt bad for my son when he went to primary and was one of the only ones who hadn't been to their nursery. But would I have changed things? unsure - I used the one that worked best for work

@Pootles34That’s true - I think the preschool at the school is probably the best long-term, but logistically the trickiest for the year.

@FancyKeyboardIt’s tricky! I think there will be some others that go from her current nursery to the same primary but they will still be coming in new to an established group

Option 2. Settling into reception class will be easier as already knows the place and will have friends.
I wouldn’t put them in the independent school as they might be sad to leave especially if their friends are staying on.

Does the preschool where you work accept the EYFS funding as well as 50% remission? What happens if either of you are ill, as presumably you can’t just leave and affect ratios.

I did option 1. My little girl was really unhappy there, we ended up in conflict with the pre-school and it became really awkward for me at work, I’d never mix work and home now.

@LIZSyes, they accept the funding to do the saving would be fairly significant. I work in the senior school part of it so it wouldn’t affect ratios in that sense if I had to leave and it would be the same juggle for cover as if her current nursery called me to pick up. I don’t really interact with EYSF at all so I don’t think the relationship with them would be significantly different to another nursery unless there was such a major issue the overall school head was involved

I would score Option 1 off the list, there's no real advantage that neither other has and lots of cons. All the complexity for the other ones are things you'd have to do the next year anyway, so they aren't additional issues, just earlier.

Option 2 would b my choice, but Option 3 is also completely fine and normal.

I would choose the future primary school one. When Dd was at nursery I chose to keep her there but all her friends switched to primary pre school and I wished I had done the same. The nursery did after school pick ups so she could have done that then been picked up by nursery.
She would have rather been with her friends.

Is she an older one or younger one in the school year?

I kept my summer born child at the pre-school that was part of their nursery. I thought this was better for them to have more stability whilst they were little.

For my Autumn babies I will look to move for that last year before school if I can get the wrap around care to work. I have older DC so will already be juggling school run etc.

I'd be put off by not being able to share the nursery runs with my DH if the nursery was where I worked. It might not happen very often but if you're ill, have an appointment or even have another pregnancy it could be difficult to navigate.

But I would probably be swayed by the discount 😂

Option 3. They are settled and you already head there anywhwre. You get time to yourselves in the hols.

Couldn’t have put this better myself

having local friends is nice and having a foundation before you start reception helps children to settle more.

I did option 3 which was lovely but regretted not doing option 2 when realised nearly all the rest of her reception class already knew each other from school nursery.